Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - A Dynamic Faith | The Writings | Psalm 40

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

Does God's power move through you, or does it remain static in you? In today's episode, Jeff explores Psalm 40 and the importance of having a dynamic faith instead of a static one. How would you describe your faith? Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 40

Welcome to 10 minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. Do you view the life of faith more like a reservoir or a river? Both are bodies of water, yet they're obviously very different from one another. A reservoir is static. Its goal is to contain. A river, on the other hand, is dynamic. Its goal is to move into something bigger than itself. For many of us, we functionally live with a faith that's like a reservoir. It's about being filled up and containing what we get. And of course, there are some important ways in which that's true.

Jesus does indeed fill our lives like nothing else can. But when we look at the Bibles' view of the Christian life, we see that we're made to experience something that's much more like a river. We're invited into a faith that not only moves in us, but through us. Psalm 40 is a Psalm of David that draws us out of the reservoir mindset and into a river like faith. But before we dive in, let's pray for God's grace to work in us as we engage with this Psalm. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath, for the gift of your word. Jesus help us abide in you as we engage with your truth.

Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in Psalm 40. As we read these words, let these words read us and change us. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's dig into Psalm 40 with the first three verses. I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear or have awe and put their trust in the Lord. Now let's focus on that concept of waiting for the Lord in verse one. Biblical waiting is not idle or passive existence. It's an active waiting that carries a sense of intensity. So David's waiting or intense longing is happening in the context of really challenging situations. Verse 2 says that he was in the pit of destruction, in the miry bog. Now just notice how out of the gate the Bible assumes that these challenging circumstances or relationships,

they will be a part of our reality in the life of faith. Now, if you're like me, I end up expending lots of energy and worry trying to avoid situations, where I have to wait on the Lord. Some people refer to this as an implicit prosperity gospel that can seep into a Christian's worldview. The implicit prosperity gospel, it suggests that if we do all the right things, if we're on the varsity team of the spiritual disciplines, or if we excel at church involvement,

then we'll have peace and harmony. It says that a good, quiet time buys us comfort, suggesting that we can somehow wiggle our way out of needing to wait on the Lord. but David will have none of that. The life of faith doesn't necessarily cause us to avoid the pit or the miry bog. It pulls us through those things and changes us along the way. God draws us up and makes our steps secure so that we can keep going where he's taking us. So far, David draws our attention to how God has worked in his life,

but notice how God's work doesn't stop in David's life. The first half of verse three describes David's new song of praise in response to the Lord's faithfulness. But look at the second half of verse three. This new song exists so that many will see and fear or have awe reverence for God and put their trust in Him. So the Lord doesn't just work in David's life, but through David's life here. Now, many expressions of Christianity only embrace or focus on, the first half of verse three. Forgetting that there's a bigger meaning, purpose, and end goal to the new song. It's meant to be heard by others and lead them to an awe and entrust in the living God.

Verse three, out of the gate, is describing faith that's like a river, flowing into more lives and ultimately leading to the glory of God himself. Is God's work in your life, working through your life as well? Or have you managed to put up walls that make your relationship with God more like a contained, closed-off reservoir? This theme of a river-like faith rolls into verses four and five. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud to those who go astray after a lie. You have multiplied, O Lord, my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us. none can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. Again, the emphasis here is on God's wondrous and comparable deeds that get proclaimed to other people.

God's work in David's life doesn't stay in David's life. It flows through him. Versus six through eight explore what this kind of faith looks like. In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, Behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it was written of me, I delight to do your will, oh my God.

Your law is within my heart. Now there's so much to consider here, but let's just observe the way that God works through David's life and through our lives. It's not through mere external behavior modification. Verse 8 tells us that the river-like movement of God, in us is about our wholehearted delight in him and in his will. Now, I don't know about you, but I need this reminder to delight in doing God's will, to do His law not only in my mind, but in my heart as well. In the Old Testament, the heart is the seat of one's entire being,

my desires, my priorities, my entire life's mission. David is saying that the key to having a river-like faith is to have a holistic faith that lives out God's law with all of who we are, wherever we are, with our head, our heart, and our hands as we go from the home to the office, to our neighborhoods, to our schools, and beyond. Every one of those areas is an opportunity to reflect God's kingdom priorities of love and justice and mercy and goodness and beauty and truth. Now, I want to pause here and note that there's some big biblical hyperlinks. happening between these verses and other parts of the Bible. If you have time and want to dig further into

the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, you may want to consider how verse 8 is connected to God's command to his people in Deuteronomy 6 as he directs them to be a part of his kingdom mission, some really cool ties going on there. If you'd like to engage with connections in the prophetical books, consider examining verse 6 alongside Micah 6 versus 6 through 8. That's such a powerful message to God's people then and today as we navigate life in exile. To summarize our journey through Psalm 40 so far, we've noticed how God's work in our lives is more like a river than a reservoir. It moves in us, but also through us. And we've seen how God isn't just interested in offering perfunctory religious acts for our lives. He wants us to

offer our entire lives to his mission as his kingdom moves. This takes us to verses 9 and 10, which serve as a kind of climax or focal point of Psalm 40. So David weaves together some main threads in a really powerful way. He says this, I have told the glad news of deliverance. Some translations here say righteousness. That's the literal Hebrew word. Told the glad news of righteousness and the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips.

As you know, Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance. Again, that's the word righteousness in Hebrew. I've not hidden your deliverance or your righteousness within my heart. I've spoken of your faithfulness in your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. Now look at the contrast that David presents in his actions. He has not restrained.

He has not hidden. He is not concealed. His faith is not a closed-off container for him alone. He has told and spoken of God's righteousness. Specifically, he's communicating about God's steadfast love and faithfulness, those two huge pillar qualities of God's character going back to Exodus 34, verses 6 through 7. Verse 11 continues this flow of thought. We see how David doesn't restrain his lips because the Lord doesn't restrain his mercy from David.

David displays God's steadfast love and faithfulness because that very steadfast love and faithfulness, because that very steadfast love and faithfulness sustains David's life. Now, I can't help but be amazed at the language here. It's so intentional. David has so profoundly surrendered his life to the love and faithfulness of God that he can't help but experience the Lord's movement in all that he does. Let's recognize how this powerful and beautiful expression of the Christian life is not all rainbows and butterflies, though. Verses 12 through 15 highlight this dynamic playing out when life is out of sorts. God works in and through David's life when evils encompass him, when he senses his

own iniquity and sin, and when other people sin against him. This is a similar dynamic that we saw up in verse two, and the lessons this, a nice, tranquil, comfortable existence is not a precondition for God's kingdom movement to be effective through us. The river runs through us as we fight sin, as we endure suffering, as we work hard for justice. If anything, that goes to only amplify the steadfastness of God's love and the strength of His faithfulness with His people. The last two verses of Psalm 40 bring us back to a river-like faith, revealing the ultimate end goal of the journey.

And this is so cool and so cool. countercultural. In David's time and in ours as well, David ends Psalm 40 by reminding us of God's glory and our need. He says, great is the Lord. As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. So David doesn't end as the triumphant hero of Psalm 40. He's not the main character. That place belongs to God. David is poor and needy. Do you believe that you're poor and needy before God? If not, it'll probably be impossible to depend on him and delight in him, to let his kingdom move through your life. I think David's end to Psalm 40 is really fitting because it reveals how a reservoir faith is really a faith that's devoid of dependence. It's closed off to waiting on God.

It's closed off to needing God's steadfast love and faithfulness. It wants to be self-sufficient and self-secure. What would it look like for you to take a step, maybe even just a baby step today, toward having a more river-like faith? A reservoir faith wants to be filled up and contained. A river-like faith is less about being filled up and more about being formed, formed by the waiting, formed by delighting in God's law in every area of life, formed by the steadfast love and faithfulness of the one who saved us. Heavenly Father, as we go and to the rest of our day, would your grace continue to form us in whatever you have for us? Form us as your people so that we can be fruitful as your kingdom flows in our lives and through

our lives too. Do it for your glory and your story. We need you in Jesus' name. Amen.